"Why?" was all Tink could say looking at the infants she found in the living room of the convent. "No seriously, why? Why would anyone trust us with children? I mean aren't you all nuns? Where would you pick up the skills needed to take care of a baby?"
The fairies around her looked mostly ready to agree with her on that point – those few who didn't look panicked, that was. Which only proved her point.
"Don't worry," said mother superior entering the room. "I called reinforcements."
"What does that even mean?" frowned one of the fairies, still keeping safe distance from the two cribs.
"Believe it or not, there is a fairy that has experience with child care," replied Blue.
"You know dropping by to give some newborn a blessing isn't the same thing as childcare, right?" said Tink, having a bad feeling about this.
"Actually I was forbidden to give blessings," said a voice from behind them. Every single fairy turned and stared at the newcomer. "Apparently it was supposed to be things like beauty and kindness, not having a terrific right hook…"
Tink blinked in surprise. So this was Blue's idea of reinforcements?
"Amy. What took you so long…?"
"You don't want to know," replied Amy, or as no one dared to call her unless they wanted a trip to ER, Amethyst. And her suggestive smile already conveyed too much information about what she was so busy doing when she got the call. "So let's see it," she said, striding towards the cribs where the smaller of the infants started to cry.
Amy reached down and took it into her arms – and surprised everyone in the room by starting to sing a strange, haunting melody in an unknown tongue to the child. The fairies only stared at her, spell-bounded as the noise level started to fall down almost immediately. Those who didn't use the distraction she represented to leave the room. Kid's and fairies really wasn't the best combination. Tink still didn't understand how they ended up getting handed infants whenever their parents felt like leaving for an adventure...
"You're a genius, you know that," said Tinkerbell to Blue. "When people find out about this they'll never let us near their children again."
"What are you talking about?" said Blue confused.
Which was strange, because everyone else could plainly see what the problem was. Amy was the farthest thing from a proper fairy these day and it went beyond her refusing to pretend to be a nun - almost the second the first curse was broken, beating even Nova in how fast she removed herself from the premises of the convent and begun a new life. And what a life that was...
She was wearing almost exclusively leather, there were tattoo's running down her arms and she spent far too much time in the hospital – either recovering from the bar fights she participated in whenever she had a free moment, or trading innuendo's with the doctor. She was, in short the last person one would want to look after their children. Which made it all the more surprising that she did such a good job of it. But maybe it was only in comparison with the other fairies that tended to go into panic attacks whenever they heard crying.
"Right. We'll need a diaper change over here," said Amy and scanned what was left of the original crowd for whoever looked least likely to fall to pieces when given that particular task. And of course her eyes stopped at Tink…
"When did you learn to do this…?" said Tink as all the other fairies dispersed, relieved their services will not be needed.
"Hold a child like I don't suspect it from exploding any second…?"
"Yes," said Tink, since that definitely was a part of it.
"When I was undercover in… Camelot," said Amy in a strange, almost amused tone. And Tinkerbelle didn't miss the look that passed between her and mother superior.
"Camelot?" she repeated staring at them both. "That's funny. Because when Arthur was here the other week you didn't seem to recognize him."
"It might have been a bit north of Camelot," admitted Amy. "Now how about you save the questioning for after you fetch me the diapers."
Tink tried, she really did. But watching a fairy interact with the child without looking like she might faint at any moment just raised so many questions… "So you were undercover taking care of children somewhere…?"
"Not exactly. It started when I delivered one. Word of advice – never pretend to be a healer. People will expect you to deliver children sooner or later. And you might think you can use magic to delete those traumatic memories, but turns out you can't," said Amy shuddering. "And then they expect you to do it again, because you already did it once… The nightmare never ends…"
"The nightmare never had to start, you know," said Blue with a knowing smile. And Tink could definitely hear it – there was a story there.
"Alright, will someone fill me in, or…?" started Tink. But Amy only smiled and started singing again. The lullaby had a sad, wistful sound to it and Tink still couldn't tell what language it was. But the infant seemed to like it all the same.
"Gaelic," said Blue, catching her look and the question it conveyed. "She picked that up too. When she was undercover."
"Undercover where?"
"Not Camelot," grinned Blue and walked off.
"I was in Camelot. A whole week of my life I'm not getting back," said Amy, not sounding all too amused about it. "So no one can really blame me for what I did. I was just trying to stay sane. That place was so boring."
"You weren't there to have fun," reminded Blue, coming back with the diapers. "You had a job to do…"
"Right. Keep an eye on a tree. What a way to use my time," said Amy rolling her eyes. Tink followed that exchange in disbelief. It wasn't just that she didn't hear about many fairies – other than herself that was – disobeying orders. It was the almost amused way Blue talked about it, though she should find it anything but. After all, she sure wasn't amused that time Tink disobeyed her.
"So what exactly did you do?" asked Tink hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
"Got drunk. Decided to fly around a bit. Crashed. Decided to stay put until I sobered up a bit since it was clear the combination of drinking and flying wasn't the best idea," said Amy actually smiling at the memory. "And I never really got around to leaving," she added.
"That's right," said Blue when she caught my disbelieving look. "She didn't like her mission so she decided to pick another. And you thought you were the renegade."
"But… How are you so calm about it?"
"She picked some pretty useful skills there," shrugged Blue. But I could tell that wasn't everything. "And she might have brought me a pelt of a demon bear as a bribe…"
Amy only grinned at that and placed the child back into its crib. "Demon bear? What?" said Tink staring at her.
"It's a long story," said Amy with a grin.
"With a strong feminist message," added Blue. "You sure you want to hear it?"
I only gave them a look. "Start talking."
And they looked ready to do just that. Unfortunately that was the moment the other infant in the room decided to start crying...
"As I said," sighed Amy. "The nightmare never ends."
